Apprenticeship vs Scholarship

<p>I just recently audition for Point Park at the Feb 6 National Unified Auditions. Point Park is my top choice school, and I logged on to my pointweb account and under “Last Contact” it said that a Theater Scholarship Award Letter was sent out today, so I will be getting it in the mail soon.
My question is, what does this letter entail? What will be in the letter? Does this mean that I have been artistically accepted into Point Park? Is there a difference between the Theater Scholarship Award Letter and the acceptance letter?
If someone can answer these questions for me, it would truly make my day. Please and thank you!</p>

<p>Yes, congratulations, it does mean that you’ve been artistically accepted into PP. You should get your award letter soon, my son received his within a week of getting that notification on his PointWeb. My son’s letter listed both his Artistic Achievement Award and his Academic Achievement award. He applied for both MT and Acting, was called back at the audition for both, and found out when he received his scholarship letter that he was admitted to the Acting program.</p>

<p>wow, thank you so much for answering my question!
this is very exciting for me!</p>

<p>what were the next steps that you and your son went through after finding out this information?</p>

<p>How long does it usually take to receive notification of acceptance (or that other dreaded thing!) once a student has auditioned? I have a young friend (well, two of them!) who have already been academically admitted but did their auditions in Pittsburgh last weekend. I know PPU has rolling admissions, so am wondering when they will hear.</p>

<p>@NotMamaRose - Well I auditioned on Feb 5 and was notified of the letter being sent by checking into my PointWeb account yesterday, the 17th of Feb. So it was almost 2 weeks, 12 days to be exact, before I got the notice of the letter. I don’t know if they send out letters by last name because if so, that could also hinder your friends from receiving the letter.</p>

<p>I also have a friend whose D auditioned for PP at Chicago unifieds. Her last contact reads “deposit reminder letter sent”. Does that mean this is the letter stating you have not been artistically accepted, but academically so? I’m afraid it does, if I recall correctly how it worked with my daughter a few years ago.</p>

<p>The time frame for notification was about the same for my son, except there was a delay of about a week for him because of the xmas break. He auditioned on 12/18, saw the “scholarship letter” posting on his PointWeb the first week of January and received his acceptance/scholarship notification letter the following week. </p>

<p>Latoyae, as far as the next steps go, my son hasn’t done anything yet. Point Park asks that you send a $350 deposit asap to “hold your place” in the class, otherwise “you may be put on a waitlist if the class fills up”. That’s a whole other discussion – you can read about it if you search the PP forum. We haven’t sent the deposit yet because DS is waiting to hear about merit/talent awards from other schools that have admitted him to the Theatre Department, plus he’s also waiting for acceptances/rejections resulting from Chicago Unifieds. </p>

<p>We really don’t have any desire to tie up that kind of money right now, especially without knowing whether he’ll accept PP’s offer or not. Although I’ve read here that PP will refund the deposit quickly should you decide not to attend and you request a refund in writing prior to May 1st. But in your case, because PP is your top choice, I would imagine you’ll probably want to get your deposit in soon. I’ve heard that as soon as you send it, PP will begin sending you registration, housing info, etc. They will tell you in your award letter how you can pay the deposit. </p>

<p>Congratulations again, and good luck!</p>

<p>My son’s PointWeb displayed the “deposit reminder letter sent” post for quite awhile after he was academically accepted (in Sept) until just prior to when they posted the “scholarship award letter sent” message (Jan). So I’m not sure if it’s any indication of an artistic acceptance/rejection or just an academic acceptance. I suppose it depends on how much time passes between the time the application was submitted and the audition?</p>

<p>latoyae - my D was accepted last year and is at PP now. She did not make her final decision until sometime in April, after we had received all information from all schools. She had no trouble with being put on a waitlist, or keeping scholarships - both academic and talent. So if you are waiting on other places, don’t feel rushed. We needed to see her full financial package.</p>

<p>@MTguyMom - I will be attending Accepted Students Day on March 19th, hopefully, so I will probably be paying my tuition deposit that day, because they give us the option of doing so. Thank you once again for the congratulations and all your help on this topic. I honestly don’t think I will believe that I have been artistically accepted until I physically have the letter in my hand. :)</p>

<p>@keepingclam - I don’t feel rushed at all to send anything in, which is honestly very surprising to me. I honestly am just anxious to see what will be inside the letter and if I truly have been artistically accepted, lol.</p>

<p>@sualabama - The deposit reminder letter, this is my guess of course, will be basically that. A letter reminding you to send in your deposit for the school. But on the topic of whether or not it will say you’ve not been artistically, but academically, accepted is beyond me. I honestly don’t think the deposit reminder letter would have anything to do with an artistic acceptance letter, but I have no idea how this works but that’s just my guess.</p>

<p>keepingcalm, thanks for the info. I wish I would have logged in here and read your post earlier today…I ended up submitting the deposit this morning because I didn’t want to chance somehow jeopardizing son’s admittance :(. Oh well, what’s another $350, considering the $thousands we’ve already spent on applications, travel, extra coaching, yadda yadda (she says tongue-in-cheek)??? I think my husband is going to have a stroke…</p>

<p>We did submit the $350 2 years ago, but when my D decided on another school on the Eastern side of PA we asked for a refund and got it very quickly. Husband can relax (a little) on this one I think.</p>

<p>Where did you find this notice? I can’t find any place that says “last contact”. I too auditioned at unifieds and the suspense kills me.</p>

<p>oh wait. totally found it. mine too says “missing deposit postcard sent”
Which has nothing to do with artistic acceptance. I have already gotten two of them since being academically accepted.
just gotta keep chcecking the next couple of days with fingers crossed!</p>

<p>@MTguyMom - when are you going to Accepted Students Day? I might be able to meet you and your son! Which would be a complete pleasure since I want to know who I plan to be taking classes with, if he chooses PP.</p>

<p>@aefitzMT - Crossing fingers for you as well! It’ll come just be patient :)</p>

<p>also my other question is, which was initially was supposed to be the main discussion of this thread haha, whats the difference between an Apprenticeship and a Scholarship?</p>

<p>you can search the PP website… there is a long list of the different types of scholarships and awards.</p>

<p>latoyae93,</p>

<p>The way my kiddo remembers it from the meeting – apprenticeships are work-study positions w/in the theatre department (so they will work w/your schedule, and you don’t have to peel potatoes!) and they pay a little higher rate than the Federal Work Study rules. The money is paid to the student as the work is done, so it doesn’t directly reduce your tuition bill.</p>

<p>Scholarships are awarded and reduce your bill. My kiddo remembered being told in their meeting that scholarshipped students are required to audition for all PP productions because, “If we want you here enough to pay you to come, we want to see you on stage.” That made a huge positive impression on her, and it was indeed one of the stipulations of her scholarship agreement (in addition to certain GPA, satisfactory progress, etc.). </p>

<p>PP does also give academic merit scholarships to those w/the various GPA/test scores. Information is on their website w/the requirements, and those can be stacked on top of a talent scholarship.</p>

<p>Would love to go back to PP for accepted students day, but kiddo is in a show then. Have fun!</p>

<p>latoyae93, DD has an apprenticeship, which is as mommafrog says a work study position. However it is not in COPA and they did not do too much to help her get it. She works at the front desk in the Procurements office which typically entails her answering the phone once in a while, doing some copying, collating and stapling and other odd office jobs. It gives her time to do homework, or some light snoozing. She works 10 hours or less a week and has found that it is actually pretty nice because it is some forced quiet/downtime.</p>

<p>There is a maximum amount of scholarship (including apprenticeship) money that PPu gives combining artistic and academic. But this was separate from grants based on FAFSA. The apprenticeship money does get paid directly to D, so they deal we made with her was that she had to pay from her savings the appreniceship amount, then once she was paid the money was her spending money. For us this has worked well thus far, since she is much more careful about spending the mony she works for every week, then just drawing down out of her savings.</p>